Submerged–John Findura

In Findura’s post-diluvian lyrical apocalypse, the covenant of the rainbow is reneged, replaced by an anxiety of everyday pathologies we all feel and recognize, whether living near a coastal border or further inland. These pages absorbed me like one of Prospero’s drowned books till my eyes turned to pearls, fixed on Medusa’s raft. – Timothy Liu

John Findura’s Submerged is a series of short, clear meditations on the beauty, the power, and the terror of water. It’s a striking collection, reader-friendly, but unflinching in its treatment of personal fear and wonder. – Billy Collins

“I have made sure that I am not anxious,” John Findura claims early in Submerged, but of course it’s never that easy. Anxiety sweeps and crashes over this collection like the waters of its unnamed nemesis, Hurricane Sandy. Through these plainspoken yet harrowing poems, Findura learns—and teaches his readers—something that is as true of devastation as it is of survival: “This happens all the time / and we barely realize it.” – Mark Bibbins